Emergency diagnosis of myocardial infarction has depended on physician acuity, and an assessment of a patient's symptoms, such as chest pain or pressure, possibly radiating down the arm and up the neck, fatigue, sense of impending doom, shortness of breath, pallor, cold clammy skin, peripheral cyanosis or rapid thready pulse.
Most North American patients experiencing chest pain will report to a doctor or emergency room within six (6) hours after the onset of the chest pain. It is therefore essential that a diagnostic test be effective in the early stages of an MI.
Several cardiac tests have been used to detect MI. These tests include: ECG, SGOT/AST, LDH, CK-MB Immunoassay and NA Latex Myoglobin Particle Enhanced Assay. However, there are no single enzyme cardiac test which enables the emergency department physician to identify the source of chest pain as cardiac or non-cardiac. Further, it is only after a myocardial infarction has been confirmed may thrombolytic therapy be initiated. The earlier such therapy is initiated, the greater likelihood of full recovery of the patient or at least minimization of cardiac damage. It is therefore essential for a physician to identify the pain as cardiac or non cardiac.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) may be used to detect an MI. However ECG is not diagnostic until after the heart has suffered severe damage. The diagnostic specificity of the ECG is only 51% in the initial phases of chest pain. Therefore, ECG is not suitable for early detection of MI.
Serum glutamic oxalacetic transaminase/aspartate transferase (SGOT/AST) is a predominant enzyme found in high concentration in heart muscle. Serum tests to determine levels of SGOT are used in diagnosing myocardial infarction. However, SGOT only begins to rise about 8-10 hours following the onset of chest pain, peaks within 24-36 hours and returns to normal after 5-7 days. SGOT is not particularly helpful in diagnosing myocardial infarction in an emergency setting at an early stage of patient chest pain. Also, SGOT is not specific to cardiac muscle. It is found in many tissues including skeletal muscle, liver and kidney, being released as a result of intra muscular injections, shock, during liver disease, and hepatic congestion, and is therefore of little value in detecting specific cardiac tissue injury.
Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) is an enzyme found in high concentration in many tissues, including heart, skeletal muscle and liver. Tests to detect the presence of LDH in serum are used to diagnose myocardial infarction. There are five common isotypes of which the heart contains predominantly LDH1 and LDH2. LDH levels begin to rise 24-36 hours after the onset of chest pain, and peak after 48-72 hours, returning to normal after 4-8 days. LDH is therefore not useful as an indicia of MI at an early stage of patient chest pain. In addition, LDH is not specific to cardiac damage, and appears with pulmonary embolism, haemolysis, hepatic congestion, renal disease and skeletal muscle damage. This lack of specificity also decreases the utility of LDH as a diagnostic aid.
Creatine kinase (CK) is an enzyme found in muscle tissue. CK catalyses the conversion of creatine and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to phosphocreatine and adenosine diphosphate (ADP). One of several CK isoenzymes is CK-MB which is found in cardiac tissue. CK-MB is a sensitive marker for the detection of myocardial infarction, as it is released from damaged myocardium tissue. CK-MB thereafter is present in the serum of an affected individual. FIG. 1 illustrates the concentration of CK in the serum of a patient as a function of time. (ref. Lee T. H. et al. (1986) Ann. Intern. Med. 105, 221-233)
The CK-MB immunoassay is the standard diagnostic test for myocardial infarction. A method describing the use of CK-MB is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,662 entitled "CK-MM Myocardial Infarction Immunoassay".
Shah, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,662 discloses a method for determining the initial elevated concentration level of CK-MM-a, an isoform of CK-MM, and CK-MM-a and CK-MM-b concurrently in patient serum following a myocardial infarction. Use of the method provides an accurate estimation of the time of the infarction. The method involves determining the combined concentration of CK-MM-a and CK-MM-b and the concentration of CK-MM-a in serum, in order to determine the time of the acute phase of myocardial infarction. Reagents are disclosed and comprise novel polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for CK-MM-a which do not bind significantly with CK-MB, CK-MM-b or CK-MM-c, an anti-CK-MM-b antibody which does not bind significantly with CK-MB, CK-MM-a or CK-MM-c, an anti-CK-MM-a+b antibody which binds with CK-MM-a and CK-MM-b but does not bind significantly with CK-MB or CK-MM-c, labelled derivatives of these antibodies, insoluble supports to which these antibodies are adhered, and kits containing one or more of these reagents. Enzyme labelled and radiolabelled CK reagents are particularly useful.
There are difficulties with the use of CK-MB alone as a diagnostic marker. First, serum levels of CK-MB are not elevated until 6-8 hours after the onset of myocardial infarction, and do not peak until after 12 hours, making early emergency diagnosis and treatment difficult.
Secondly, the CK-MB test must be conducted in a laboratory by trained laboratory technicians. In non-urban locations, it may not be feasible to have the test conducted and the results interpreted expeditiously, resulting in increased delay in diagnosis and hence increased costs to the health care system in terms of hospitalization costs of a patient awaiting diagnosis.
Thirdly, CK-MB has been located in normal skeletal muscle tissue, consequently rendering the test less cardiac specific, and the diagnosis less certain.
Myoglobin is another protein located near the skeletal or myocardial cell membrane. It is expelled from the cell as soon as the cell membrane becomes abnormally permeable, for example, during myocardial ischemia, a reversible state. Myoglobin is detectable in the serum within 1.5 hours of the onset of chest pain. The medical research community believes that myoglobin is released by myocardial necrosis, and it is therefore a useful early marker of myocardial injury. FIG. 2 illustrates the concentration of myoglobin in the serum as a function of time. (ref. Grenadier E. et al. (1981) Am. Heart J. 105, 408-416; Seguin J. et al. (1988) J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 95, 294-297)
In determining the origin of chest pain, an acute myocardial infarction can be excluded if no elevation of serum myoglobin is detected within 2-3 hours after the onset of pain.
An NA Latex Myoglobin Particle Enhanced Assay is a commercially available assay kit for the detection of myoglobin. The assay is based on the reaction between antigen present in human body fluids and antimyoglobin antibodies covalently coupled to polystyrene particles. The sample, N Myoglobin Reagent, a solution for the elimination of nonspecific reactions and N Reaction Buffer are pipetted automatically into a cuvette. Light scattering is measured by a nephelometric procedure after 12 minutes of incubation time and the myoglobin concentration is calculated from a calibration curve.
Myoglobin may also be assayed using a radioimmunoassay but there is no enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format yet available.
There are difficulties with the use of myoglobin alone as a diagnostic marker. Myoglobin does not indicate a particular type of myocardial injury, such as myocardial infarction. Myoglobin can also be present during such diverse conditions as shock, renal disease, rhabdomyolysis, and myopathies. Additionally, myoglobin concentrations in serum and plasma generally depend on age and sex and vary over a wide range in normal healthy humans. Serum concentrations up to 90 ug/l are generally regarded as the upper limit of the reference range for healthy people. Therefore, what may be a normal level for one individual may be indicative of a serious problem in another individual, making diagnosis somewhat less accurate than would be desirable.
Myosin light chains (MLC) are integral parts of the myosin myofibril, but their functional role is still unclear. MLCs exist in slow, fast, atrial, and ventricular muscles. It is known that MLCs are highly sensitive for myocardial ischemia. MLCs appear in the serum rapidly, and their levels remain elevated for up to 10 days following myocardial necrosis. FIG. 3 illustrates the concentration of MLC in patient serum as a function of time. (ref. Wang J. et al. (1989) Clin. Chimica. Acta 181, 325-336; Jackowski G., Symmes J. C. et al. (1989) Circulation Suppl. 11 80, 355.) MLC also has prognostic value in determining the success of thrombolytic therapy. Higher levels of MLC, indicate a worse prognosis, and also corresponds to a larger infarction. Falling levels over several days indicate a tendency towards patient recovery, whereas spiking or stadico pattern indicate a tendency towards infarction and a need for intervention.
There are two principal types of MLC known as MLC1 and MLC2, which exist as a soluble pool in the myocardial cell cytoplasm and also integral with the myosin myofibril. In the ventricular muscle, MLC2, and perhaps MLC1, is identical with the isotype expressed in slow skeletal muscle. MLC1 is elevated in 80-85% of the patients with cardiac pain. MLC1 is a very sensitive indicator of unstable angina and coronary heart disease.
Other cardiac markers, low molecular weight cardiac proteins (LMWCP) may be used as cardiac markers. Examples of such cardiac markers include components of the contractile apparatus, namely, troponin, including troponin-T, troponin-I and troponin C, mitochondrial enzymes, such as triose P isomerase, low molecular weight polypeptides which are readily released from the heart, and sarcolemmal membrane proteins or protein fragments which may be released early after the onset of ischemia, in particular, a 15 kd sarcolemma protein and a 100 kd complex glycoprotein which are cardiac specific.
The cardiac isotype troponin-I inhibits the interaction between actin and myosin molecules during rest periods between contractions of the heart muscle. Troponin-I appears in serum of patient within 4-6 hours after MI and remains elevated for 7- 8 days. FIG. 4 illustrates the concentration of troponin-I as a function of time. (ref. Cummins B., Auckland M. L. and Cummins P. (1987) Am. Heart J. 113, 1333-1344.). It is cardiac specific and has a greater sensitivity than other markers in detecting cardiac versus skeletal muscle injury.
Troponin-T is part of the troponin-tropomyosin complex of the thin filament and serves as a link between the tropomyosin backbone and the troponin-I troponin C complex. Troponin-T is a basic protein and has isotypes in cardiac and fast and slow skeletal muscles. It appears in serum within 3 hours and remains elevated for at least 10 days following MI. FIG. 5 illustrates the concentration of troponin-T as a function of time. (ref. Katus H. A. et al. (1989) J. Mol. Cell Cardiol. 21, 1349-1353.). Troponin-T follows a biphasic release pattern. It is cardiac specific and very sensitive for MI.
Myosin heavy chains (MHC), and tropomyosin, are heavier molecular weight proteins which may also be used as cardiac markers. MHC is part of the major contractile protein of muscle. Fragments of MHC can be released from the ventricule into serum after myocardial cell necrosis and subsequent irreversible membrane injury. Although MHC fragments do not appear quickly in the serum following myocardial cell necrosis, MHCs remain elevated for at least 10 days following MI, and peak levels of MHC are observed 4 days after MI. FIG. 6 illustrates the concentration of MHC as a function of time. (ref. Leger J. O. C. et al. (1985) Eur. J. of Clin. Invet. 15, 422-429, Seguin J. R. et al. (1989) J Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 98, 397-401.). The area under the MHC release curve correlates very well with the extent of myocardial cell damage. However, MHC levels are of little clinical value during the acute phase of MI.
Tropomyosin is a dimer formed from two polypeptide which are part of the regulatory system in muscle contraction. Tropomyosin is detectable in serum approximately 7-8 hours after myocardial infarction, and like CK-MB, is very sensitive for myocardial infarction. FIG. 7 illustrates the concentration of tropomyosin as a function of time. (ref. Cummins P. et al. (1981) Clin. Sci. 60, 251-259). However, tropomyosin is not cardiac specific since it is elevated in conditions of skeletal muscle trauma.
There are limitations for each of the current standard diagnostic methods for myocardial infarction. None provide a highly sensitive, specific, rapid, and simple diagnostic test which may be conducted soon after the onset of chest pain, for example, in an ambulance or doctor's office.
The present invention combines and measures at least three different markers of cardiac damage present in the blood or serum of a patient in early onset of chest pain in order to provide an improved method of diagnosis of myocardial infarction for use in the early stages of unstable angina or MI.